Letters to the Editor, June 6

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at the San Francisco Chronicle's ceremony for the Visionary of the Year Award at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco , Calif., on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

I’m more than appalled at the lack of interest San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr has regarding rape kits. Perhaps if any of his female family members were raped, he would care to do whatever is necessary to catch these perpetrators past and present. The fact that the lab is in disarray is more of a reason to get proper funding regarding this issue. How dare these officials not show more interest in this subject?

I’m so angry you can see the smoke rise from my head. Having been a rape victim in the 1960s when there were no rape kits taken, I’m sitting here wondering why on Earth wouldn’t they do whatever is possible now in 2015? Just plain terrible in my eyes. Shame on you all!

Linda Appleby, Mill Valley

Bigger than sports

Regarding Chip Johnson’s “Teacher needs coaching on game’s realities” (June 5), I think the point is not how hard Steph Curry and Klay Thompson worked to get to the NBA, but what they work at. Basketball is a skill, a game, a hobby, a pastime, a source of entertainment; it is not a meaningful career someone who wants to achieve real success in life would confine himself or herself to. Professional sports is full of saints and jerks.

Unfortunately, there are a lot more of the latter, and this should tell us something about the nature of the enterprise where players get paid a thousand times more than those who, say, help the homeless, an example of hard work that no amount of privilege will qualify you for. What we are worth as human beings should be in direct proportion to the amount of kindness with which we treat those around us. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everyone can be great because anyone can serve.”

John Ahlbach, Pacifica

Humane methods

Regarding “Targeting trappers” (May 31): Shame on Chris Brennan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. Their culture of killing is disgusting, both from a humanitarian point of view and also from a fiscal perspective. It’s cheaper and more effective to use more humane methods of predator control, but no, we kill instead. I don’t want my taxpayer money going to any of this dirty business. It disgusts me.

Verna McGann, San Bruno

Farming trouble

Regarding “Gritty truth about a boyhood utopia” (Datebook, June 4): It seems the only loss being documented by Morgan Schmidt-Feng in his documentary about the changes in farming is his naivete. Farming has always been a physically demanding, and mentally deadening, occupation. Why has the percentage of U.S. (and the rest of the developed world) workers in agriculture declined?

The simple truth is that it has always been a tough life, one where many parents have actively encouraged their children to find something better for themselves. Additionally, the one constant in farming is change, while Schmidt-Feng appears to long for a static agrarian lifestyle for both himself and the people that are required to live it. It is nice to know that someone is awakening to the reality of how food is produced, but does he have to make a film about his own enlightenment?

Ronald Amundson, Orinda

Clear facts?

I would ask Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to reflect on his recent comments about transgender people. His words, “The clear biological fact is that a human being is born either male or female,” have the sting of the Pharisee, not the compassion of Jesus. And they indicate a lack of knowledge regarding the current scientific evidence. One is reminded of the ancient misunderstanding of epilepsy as a sign of demonic possession. The archbishop has stated in the past, “I’ve always believed that when people get to know each other, that breaks down stereotypes, prejudices, prejudgments, when people get to know each other on a human level.”

I agree. Has the archbishop met with transgender people and gotten to know them on a human level? As a suggestion, perhaps the archbishop would consider, and reflect on, these words of St. Francis: “When I was in sins, it seemed extremely bitter to me to look at lepers, and the Lord himself led me among them and I practiced mercy with them.” May God bless us all.

Edward Gonzalez, Atlanta

Boycott bridge

Regarding “Bridge tolls broadside drivers in rental cars” (June 4): Michael Cabanatuan writes of the Golden Gate Bridge’s “soaring International orange towers,” rental car users and their displeasure at the backhanded bridge tolls. When I heard the bridge decided to toll and bill motorists with photographs, I decided I would never drive that bridge again. Since then, a work acquaintance was found in the waters underneath the bridge.

Although I only knew this person from work, I was deeply affected by the news. I liked her and wanted to know her better. A few days later I watched “The Bridge,” about individuals who have chosen one of the modern eight wonders of the world to jump off this mortal coil. Today, I see the “Golden” Gate Bridge as anything but golden. Certainly not orange. It is a bridge of greed. Boycott it. Never take it again.

Charles Birimisa, Watsonville

Empty pool

I’ll believe Southern California is serious about water conservation when aerial photographs show at least half the backyard swimming pools are dry.

Richard Sanborn, Bayside,

Humboldt County

Fracking limit

California is in a state of emergency due to the effects of a long-lasting drought. Not only is this affecting our everyday lives, California provides a sizable majority of American fruits, vegetables and nuts being the No. 1 food and agricultural producer in the United States for more than 50 years. While agricultural usage consumes a large portion of California’s precious liquid resource, I would like to draw your attention to another aquatic guzzler less familiar to the general public: fracking. Just in the state of California alone, millions of gallons of water was used for fracking in 2014.

While fracking can be considered a form of alternative energy, it also has harmful environmental implications, causing local air pollution and earthquakes, and using an insurmountable amount of our valuable clean water supply that should be used more responsibly. We need to bring attention to this popular practice and use the planet’s resources more sustainably so that we can enjoy them for years to come.